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Paul Higgins
28 articles

Ju188A-2 conversion, using Revell Ju88A-1 & AIMS multi-media conversion set

October 18, 2024 · in Aviation · · 14 · 92

Hi, guys... this is my latest offering, converting the 1/32 scale Revell Ju88 to a Ju188. I made this kit some years ago, but doing a review of my stored kits, I decided to take this one and refurbish it. It was finished as a reconnaissance version used by 1./Aufkl.Gr.33, which was found in Denmark at the end of the war, but I wanted to revive the kit by changing the version to a bomber of 1./KG2, found abandoned at Bron near Lyon, France, in September 1944 by US troops.

Although the bulk of the model is the Revell kit, the bulk of the work was making the necessary changes using the AIMS accessory kit, including replacing the engines, adjusting the wing/aileron and horiztonal tail/elevator tips and attaching the entire Ju188 forward fuselage including the cockpit, which is supplied as one piece of cast resin, and then adding in the relevant details to that area. The horizontal tail and rudder were also resin replacements. The dorsal turret was largely PE parts with some plastic card added to complete the assembly, and the bombs and bomb racks - absent from the Ju88A-1 kit from Revell - were sourced from that company's Ju88 A-4 kit.

The canopies are vacuformed parts, not a strong point of mine working with these, but I was quite pleased they turned out better this time around, albeit not perfect. I also felt the exhaust flame dampers were too long and took time to shorten them after looking at wartime photographs. Future was applied to all transparencies at the end of the build, and this really helped in creating more clarity. The nose cannon and bomb sight were also additional pieces to be added in, and the parts representing the engine cowlings and their mounts had to be adjusted as well, due to a slight mismatch of the parts.

The photos here are a small selection of available material, but if you want to see the whole process, there is now a build video you can access on YouTube via this address - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WgbwNRhD_A&t=798s.

Thanks for looking in... ;-).

Reader reactions:
9  Awesome

20 additional images. Click to enlarge.


14 responses

  1. Nice work, Paul! Great result.

  2. Excellent job and great result, Paul!

  3. That's quite a comprehensive project, Paul. Very nice.

  4. Absolute wonderful, Paul @paulh
    That's a nice painting scheme.

  5. Looks like a hard work conversion, but solely looking at the completed model no one could tell. Great work!

    • Thanks, Pedro. My first resin kits were 1/72 scale and more or less a few major pieces and the kit was finished; this is more involved, so I'm pleased it turned out this good.

  6. Lotsa skill coming through on this fine build.

  7. The effort paid off handsomely! Nicely done.

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